Mia laughed at her fussing, but a wave of excitement somersaulted through her. ‘Oh, is it time yet? I can’t wait—’
The flap of the marquee flew open and Felipe appeared. He clasped his hands beneath his chin when he saw her.
‘Radiant!’ he pronounced, before whisking a compact from somewhere and touching a powder puff lightly to her nose. He kissed the air above her cheeks. ‘Perfect!’
He pulled out his camera and snapped a couple of pictures.
She waggled a finger at him. ‘Don’t forget—those photos are mine and Dylan’s. None are to mysteriously appear in an exhibition.’
‘Cross my heart, darling. Besides, your dishy intended is paying me enough to make it worth my while.’ He pouted. ‘Also, he made me sign some awful form full of lawyer-speak.’
Mia laughed.
‘I’ve been sent to tell you everything is ready.’
‘Oh!’ She clasped her hands together.
‘Nervous, darling?’
‘Excited.’
He squeezed her hands. ‘I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.’
And then he was gone.
Carla handed her a bouquet of pink and white peonies. ‘Ready?’
A lump lodged in her throat. All she could do was nod.
Thierry held the flap of the marquee open to reveal the red carpet that would lead her to Dylan. Carla set off down the carpet first. Thierry made Mia wait until Carla was halfway down the makeshift aisle before stepping after her.
Mia was vaguely aware of the beautiful music playing, of the murmurs of appreciation from their wedding guests, but her focus was wholly centred on the man standing at the other end.
His blond hair gleamed golden in the sunlight. His broad shoulders and strong thighs were outlined to perfection in his tuxedo. His heart was in his eyes. He didn’t try to hide it from anyone, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen anything more beautiful in her life.
Awe rose up through her...and more happiness than her body could contain. It spilled from her eyes and onto her cheeks.
He took her hand. His throat bobbed with emotion as he swallowed.
‘You’re so beautiful you make my eyes water,’ she whispered, not caring about her make-up.
He smiled down at her. ‘You’re so beautiful you make my heart sing.’
The celebrant cleared her throat. ‘Ready?’
Mia smiled up at Dylan. ‘Yes.’
The service was simple but heartfelt. The reception was the epitome of joy and elegance. Mia felt like a fairytale princess.
After the meal had been eaten, toasts made, the cake cut and the bridal waltz completed, Dylan took her hand and they sneaked outside to stand at the wooden railing overlooking the lily pond. Lights twinkled in the trees, glimmering across the water’s surface.
Dylan took her face in his hands and kissed her. A sweet, gentle kiss that promised a lifetime of kisses.
‘Happy?’ he murmured, easing back.
‘More than I ever thought possible.’ She smiled up at him before glancing back towards the marquee. ‘Has anyone ever told you that you know how to throw a fabulous party?’
‘What can I say? I’m gifted.’
She gurgled back a laugh. ‘Look.’ She pointed to Carla and Thierry dancing. ‘They look gorgeous together.’
Dylan snorted. ‘Carla should’ve had a wedding like this! Elopement?’ He snorted again.
Mia leaned back against him. ‘You just love any excuse to throw a party.’
‘What’s wrong with a party?’
‘Absolutely nothing. I adore parties. I’m especially loving this one.’
She bit her lip then, and glanced up at him again.
‘Are you sorry your Uncle Andrew isn’t here?’ The man might be a miserable excuse for a human being but he was still Dylan’s uncle.
‘Not a bit. I’ll be happy if I never clap eyes on him again.’
There hadn’t been enough evidence to charge Andrew with assault against Carla, but the scandal hadn’t done the older man any favours. Especially since a young intern who worked in his office had made similar allegations against him. He’d been suspended pending an internal inquiry. If found guilty he’d lose his job. His political ambitions would be nothing more than dust.
Mia glanced up into her new husband’s face and knew Andrew wouldn’t be making trouble for any of them ever again.
Dylan smiled down at her. ‘The day I won your heart was the luckiest day of my life.’
She turned in his arms, resting her hands against the warm hard contours of his chest. ‘I’m the real winner, Dylan. You made me believe in love again. You showed me the power it had to do good. Whatever happens in the future, I’ll never forget that lesson.’ She touched her fingers to his face. ‘I love you. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you very, very happy.’
She wondered if her face reflected as much love as his did. She hoped so.
‘Want to know what would make me happy right now?’ he murmured, a wicked light flitting through his eyes. ‘A kiss.’
Laughing, she reached up on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his, telling him in a language that needed no words how much she loved him.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from FALLING FOR THE SECRET MILLIONAIRE by Kate Hardy.
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Falling for the Secret Millionaire
by Kate Hardy
CHAPTER ONE
‘ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, Miss Thomas?’ the lawyer asked.
‘Fine, thank you,’ Nicole fibbed. She was still trying to get her head round the news. The grandfather she’d never met—the man who’d thrown her mother out on the street when he’d discovered that she was pregnant with Nicole and the father had no intention of marrying her—had died and left Nicole a cinema in his will.
A run-down cinema, from the sounds of it; the solicitor had told her that the place had been closed for the last five years. But, instead of leaving the place to benefit a charity or someone in the family he was still speaking to, Brian Thomas had left the cinema to her: to the grandchild he’d rejected before she’d even been born.
Why?
Nicole shook herself. Clearly she’d been working in banking for too long, to be this cynical about a stranger’s motivations.
‘It’s actually not that far from where you live,’ the solicitor continued. ‘It’s in Surrey Quays.’
Suddenly Nicole knew exactly what and where the cinema was. ‘You mean the old Electric Palace on Mortimer Gardens?’
‘You know it?’ He looked surprised.
‘I walk past it every day on my way to work,’ she said. In the three years she’d been living in Surrey Quays, she’d always thought the old cinema a gorgeous building, and it was a shame that the place was neglected and boarded up. She hadn’t had a clue that the cinema had any connection with her at all. Though there was a local history thread in the Surrey Quays forum—the local community website she’d joined when she’d first moved to her flat in Docklands—which included several posts about the Electric Palace’s past. Someone had suggested setting up a volunteer group to get the cinema back up and running again, except nobody knew who owned it.
Nicole had the answer to that now. She was the new owner of the Electric Palace. And it was the last thing she’d ever expected.
‘So you know what you’re taking on, then,’ the solicitor said brightly.
Taking on? She hadn’t even decided whether to accept the bequest yet, let alone what she was going to do with it.
‘Or,’ the solicitor continued, ‘if you don’t want to take it on, there is another option. A local development company has been in touch with us, expressing interest in buying the site, should you wish to sell. It’s a fair offer.’
‘I need a little time to think this through before I make any decisions,’ Nicole said.
‘Of course, Miss Thomas. That’s very sensible.’
Nicole smiled politely, though she itched to remind the solicitor that she was twenty-eight years old, not eight. She wasn’t a naive schoolgirl, either: she’d worked her way up from the bottom rung of the ladder to become a manager in an investment bank. Sensible was her default setting. Was it not obvious from her tailored business suit and low-heeled shoes, and in the way she wore her hair pinned back for work?
‘Now, the keys.’ He handed her a bunch of ancient-looking keys. ‘We will of course need time to alter the deeds, should you decide to keep it. Otherwise we can handle the conveyancing of the property, should you decide to sell to the developer or to someone else. We’ll wait for your instructions.’
‘Thank you,’ Nicole said, sliding the keys into her handbag. She still couldn’t quite believe she owned the Electric Palace.
‘Thank you for coming in to see us,’ the solicitor continued. ‘We’ll be in touch with the paperwork.’
She nodded. ‘Thank you. I’ll call you if there’s anything I’m unsure about when I get it.’
‘Good, good.’ He gave her another of those avuncular smiles.
As soon as Nicole had left the office, she grabbed her phone from her bag and called her mother—the one person she really needed to talk to about the bequest. But the call went straight through to Susan’s voicemail. Then again, at this time of day her mother would be in a meeting or with one of her probationers. Nicole’s best friend Jessie, an English teacher, was knee-deep in exam revision sessions with her students, so she wouldn’t be free to talk to Nicole about the situation until the end of the day. And Nicole definitely didn’t want to discuss this with anyone from work; she knew they’d all tell her to sell the place to the company who wanted to buy it, for the highest price she could get, and to keep the money.
Her head was spinning. Maybe she would sell the cinema—after all, what did she know about running a cinema, let alone one that hadn’t been in operation for the last five years and looked as if it needed an awful lot of work doing to it before it could open its doors again? But, if she did sell the Electric Palace, she had no intention of keeping the money. As far as she was concerned, any money from Brian Thomas ought to go to his daughter, not skip a generation. Susan Thomas had spent years struggling as a single mother, working three jobs to pay the rent when Nicole was tiny. If the developer really was offering a fair price, it could give Susan the money to pay off her mortgage, go on a good holiday and buy a new car. Though Nicole knew she’d have to work hard to convince her mother that she deserved the money; plus Susan might be even more loath to accept anything from her father on the grounds that it was way too late.
Or Nicole could refuse the bequest on principle. Brian Thomas had never been part of her life or shown any interest in her. Why should she be interested in his money now?
She sighed. What she really needed right now was some decent caffeine and the space to talk this through with someone. There was only one person other than her mother and Jessie whose advice she trusted. Would he be around? She found the nearest coffee shop, ordered her usual double espresso, then settled down at a quiet table and flicked into the messaging program on her phone. Clarence was probably busy, but then again if she’d caught him on his lunch break he might have time to talk.
In the six months since they’d first met on the Surrey Quays forum, they’d become close and they talked online every day. They’d never actually met in person; and, right from the first time he’d sent her a private message, they’d agreed that they wouldn’t share personal details that identified them, so they’d stuck to their forum names of Georgygirl and Clarence. She had no idea what he even looked like—she could have passed him in the street at any time during the three years she’d been living at Surrey Quays. In some ways it was a kind of coded, secret relationship, but at the same time Nicole felt that Clarence knew the real her. Not the corporate ghost who spent way too many hours in the office, or the much-loved daughter and best friend who was always nagged about working too hard, but the real Nicole. He knew the one who wondered about the universe and dreamed of the stars. Late at night, she’d told him things she’d never told anyone else, even her mother or Jessie.
Maybe Clarence could help her work out the right thing to do.
She typed a message and mentally crossed her fingers as she sent it.
Hey, Clarence, you around?
* * *
Gabriel Hunter closed his father’s office door behind him and walked down the corridor as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
What he really wanted to do was to beat his fists against the walls in sheer frustration. When, when, when was he going to stop paying for his teenage mistake?
OK, so it had been an awful lot worse than the usual teenage mistakes—he’d crashed his car into a shop front one night on the way home from a party and done a lot of damage. But nobody had been physically hurt and he’d learned his lesson immediately. He’d stopped going round with the crowd who’d thought it would be fun to spike his drink when he was their designated driver. He’d knuckled down to his studies instead of spending most of his time partying, and at the end of his final exams he’d got one of the highest Firsts the university had ever awarded. Since then, he’d proved his worth over and over again in the family business. Time after time he’d bitten his tongue so he didn’t get into a row with his father. He’d toed the party line. Done what was expected of him, constantly repented for his sins to atone in his father’s eyes.
And his father still didn’t trust him. All Gabriel ever saw in his father’s eyes was ‘I saved you from yourself’. Was Evan Hunter only capable of seeing his son as the stupid teenager who got in with a bad crowd? Would he ever see Gabriel for who he was now, all these years later? Would he ever respect his son?
Days like today, Gabriel felt as if he couldn’t breathe. Maybe it was t
ime to give up trying to change his family’s view of him and to walk away. To take a different direction in his career—though, right at that moment, Gabriel didn’t have a clue what that would be, either. He’d spent the last seven years since graduation working hard in the family business and making sure he knew every single detail of Hunter Hotels Ltd. He’d tried so hard to do the right thing. The reckless teenager he’d once been was well and truly squashed—which he knew was a good thing, but part of him wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t had the crash. Would he have grown out of the recklessness but kept his freedom? Would he have felt as if he was really worth something, not having to pay over and over for past mistakes? Would he be settled down now, maybe with a family of his own?
All the women he’d dated over the last five years saw him as Gabriel-the-hotel-chain-heir, the rich guy who could show them a good time and splash his cash about, and he hated that superficiality. Yet the less superficial, nicer women were wary of him, because his reputation got in the way; everyone knew that Gabriel Hunter was a former wild child and was now a ruthless company man, so he’d never commit emotionally and there was no point in dating him because there wasn’t a future in the relationship. And his family all saw him as Gabe-who-made-the-big-mistake.
How ironic that the only person who really saw him for himself was a stranger. Someone whose real name he didn’t even know, let alone what she did or what she looked like, because they’d been careful not to exchange those kinds of details. But over the last six months he’d grown close to Georgygirl from the Surrey Quays forum.
Which made it even more ironic that he’d only joined the website because he was following his father’s request to keep an eye out for local disgruntled residents who might oppose the new Hunter Hotel they were developing from a run-down former spice warehouse in Surrey Quays, and charm them into seeing things the Hunter way. Gabriel had discovered that he liked the anonymity of an online persona—he could actually meet people and get to know them, the way he couldn’t in real life. The people on the forum didn’t know he was Gabriel Hunter, so they had no preconceptions and they accepted him for who he was.
An Unlikely Bride for the Billionaire Page 19